Alfred Stieglitz: 9 works

'In 1917, a year after Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe met, Stieglitz began photographing the artist. He continued to do so until 1933 when he completed Georgia O'Keeffe: A Portrait, a large-scale photographic project that is considered one of the most extensive serial documents in any medium.'

'Recently returned from nearly a decade in Europe, Stieglitz found not only his subject matter on the streets of New York but also an emotional relationship with the city's anonymity and alienation. This photograph, with its physically tight spaces and faceless inhabitants, expressed Stieglitz's mood in somber tones.'

'At the time, Stieglitz had just returned from Germany and found America culturally barren in comparison. According to one anecdote, when he saw the horses being nourished by their driver, he decided that he should assume the same role and nourish the arts in this country.'

'Stieglitz reproduced this photograph in the January 1903 issue of Camera Work, a journal that he both founded and edited. In the early 1930s he returned to the image and printed additional photographs.'

'This work, from 1907, is his most well-known image. Here, Stieglitz uses the dramatic angle of the plank that cuts through the center of the image to emphasize the physical and psychological distance between the poor passengers below in the steerage and the wealthier class above on deck.'

'Twenty-five years after making this photograph, Alfred Stieglitz recalled the moment in vivid detail, no doubt aided by the information provided within the frame. He had wandered down from the first-class deck to survey the jumbled scene of teeming passengers in the steerage, or economy class, section, which contrasted sharply with "the mob called the 'rich"' that he had left behind.'

'This straightforward scene from contemporary life is proclaimed as Stieglitz's first Modernist photograph--a work that stands in stark contrast to his previous painterly photographic renderings of Symbolist subjects. Employing a compressed composition, Stieglitz portrays the densely packed lower decks of a ship, or steerage.'

'Though it was captured in the blink of an eye, The Steerage is one of the most enduring artworks in the history of photography and the seminal work of artist Alfred Stieglitz's famed career.'

'Another important contribution that Stieglitz made to the photographic community around the turn of the century was the founding of Gallery 291 (originally known as the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession) on Fifth Avenue in New York City (1905). After the Pictorialist movement had run its course, Stieglitz became a proponent of the Straight Photography movement, promoting the work of photographers such as Paul Strand.'